Privacy Policy

1Controller

2A. This website

When you open a page of this website, your browser sends the usual technical data to the server: your IP address, date and time, the page requested, the referring page, browser type and operating system. Our hosting provider stores this in a server log for security and troubleshooting and deletes it after a short time. We do not merge it with other data. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in a secure, working website (Art. 6 (1) f GDPR).

Apart from that, this website processes nothing: no cookies, no analytics or tracking, no embedded fonts, videos, maps or scripts from third parties. All files, including icons, are served from this website itself. That is why there is no cookie banner.

The “Add to Chrome” buttons link to the Chrome Web Store (Google). Only when you click them does Google receive your request; from then on Google’s privacy policy applies. The same goes for links to vantica.de and other external sites.

If you write to us by email, we use your address and message only to answer you and delete them once the matter is settled, unless statutory retention periods apply.

3B. The Startwerk extension

Everything from here on describes the Chrome extension itself: what it stores on your device, which services your browser contacts on your behalf, and what never leaves your computer.

4Which data is processed?

Startwerk processes only data that you create on your device:

• Bookmarks, folders, notes, habit entries, countdown dates and widget settings you create
• The postal code (with place name and coordinates) for the weather widget
• Photos you add (photo widget with up to 10 photos, photo background, photos of huddle contacts). They are downscaled and stored only locally in your browser
• The address of your calendar feed (calendar widget) and the most recently fetched events as a local cache
• The layout of your start page (position and size of elements)
• General settings (language, appearance, working hours)
• If used: name, huddle link and optionally a photo for up to 5 Slack contacts (huddle widget) – entered by you only, never fetched from Slack automatically

This data is stored locally via the browser’s chrome.storage API. There is no server of ours that data is sent to – Startwerk cannot and does not want to see this data.

5Recently closed tabs

The “Recently closed” widget shows a short list of the tabs and windows you closed last, which Chrome itself already keeps (chrome.sessions), and lets you reopen one of them with a click. This list is not stored or transmitted; it is requested from Chrome anew each time the start page opens.

6Chrome sync

Sync is enabled by default. If extension sync is also active in your Chrome profile, Chrome stores a copy of your data via chrome.storage.sync in your own Chrome profile signed in to Google, so it is available on your other devices. This runs entirely through your own Google account and is subject to Google’s own privacy policy for Chrome sync – Vantica UG has no access to it. You can turn sync off at any time in Startwerk’s settings.

If the address of your calendar feed contains a secret token (as is common with many providers), it is synced as well. Photos (photo widget, huddle contacts, photo background) are never synced and stay on the device where you added them. If the remaining data exceeds Google’s limit for Chrome sync (around 100 KB), the data automatically stays local only, without anything being lost. Startwerk shows a notice in that case.

7RSS feeds and calendar feeds

When you add an RSS/Atom feed or an iCal calendar feed, your browser fetches the address directly from the respective provider (for example the website’s operator or your calendar service). That provider sees the same technical information (for example the IP address) it would normally see when you visit its website.

Startwerk itself does not operate a proxy or intermediate server that these requests pass through. RSS feeds are additionally refreshed every 30 minutes in the background, provided you opened the start page within the last 24 hours. The content is processed and displayed only on your device.

Startwerk asks for access to a website only when you add a feed, and only for that one address. You can revoke the permission in the settings at any time.

8Weather (Bright Sky / Deutscher Wetterdienst)

The weather widget and the optional weather background load weather data via the Bright Sky service (api.brightsky.dev), which provides open data from the German Meteorological Service (DWD). Startwerk asks for your permission once for this single address.

You enter your postal code (Germany and neighbouring countries). Mapping it to coordinates happens entirely on your device using a bundled list (postal code data from GeoNames, CC BY 4.0). Only these coordinates, rounded to about one kilometre, are transmitted – never the postal code itself – plus, as with any website request, your IP address for technical reasons. Your location is not determined.

Data is fetched at most every 30 minutes per place and cached locally. The DWD’s terms of use apply to the data; the widget and, while the weather background is active, the bottom-left corner of the page show the required attribution “Data source: Deutscher Wetterdienst, processed via Bright Sky”. The weather background has its own place, which you enter separately in Settings; it is handled exactly like the widget’s place. Bright Sky and the DWD are independent services; their privacy notices apply to processing there.

9Mini Sites (websites as a tile)

The Mini Site widget embeds a website you specify in a frame (iframe) on the start page. That page is loaded from its provider and may set cookies and process data according to its own rules; the respective provider’s privacy policy applies. Startwerk itself receives nothing from it.

10Bookmark icons and search

Your bookmark icons come from Chrome’s own local icon cache; no bookmark address leaves your device for that. Only if you enable “Load high-resolution icons via Google” in the settings (off by default) does Startwerk load the icons in high resolution from Google’s favicon service. In that case only the bookmark’s domain (not the full address) is sent to Google.

Search terms from the search bar go directly to the search engine you chose, exactly as if you searched on its website.

11Funding, recommendations and partner links

Startwerk is funded through content partners and partner recommendations. Startwerk may show a recommendation box. The box is labelled “Ad” and contains a partner link (affiliate link): if you order something from the partner through it, the provider of Startwerk receives a commission at no extra cost to you. You can simply dismiss the box.

The box is part of the locally stored start page. Startwerk transmits no data about you in the process, and no data is sent to ad networks or partners. Only when you click the link does the partner’s page open in a new tab; from then on its privacy policy applies, and the partner can tell from the link that you came from Startwerk.

You can remove the box with “Dismiss”; it will not reappear afterwards, not even after updates in which we exchange content. Content partners and recommendations can be removed from the page entirely.

12No analytics, no tracking, no ad networks

Startwerk contains no analytics or tracking libraries (for example Google Analytics), no ad networks and no third-party scripts. No usage statistics are collected or transmitted. The recommendations described above are fixed, labelled notices built into Startwerk and are not served through third parties.

Startwerk’s use of information received from Chrome permissions adheres to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements: this data is used solely for the features described, is not transferred to third parties, is not used for advertising, and is not read by humans.

13Importing the bookmarks bar and most visited sites

These features read the corresponding Chrome data only when you explicitly trigger them in the welcome tour or in the settings, and copy it into the locally stored Startwerk data. Nothing is transmitted to third parties.

14Deleting your data

You can delete all data at any time by removing the extension from Chrome or choosing “Reset everything” in the settings. If sync is on, the reset also applies to your other devices. If you want to keep your folders, bookmarks and feeds, export them as a preset first.

15Changes to this policy

This privacy policy is updated when this website or Startwerk changes substantially. The date above shows the current version.

16Contact

Questions about privacy: mail@vantica.de.